Trajenta now available for T2DM

Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly have launched Trajenta (linagliptin), a single dose, once-daily tablet for adults with type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in the UK.

Trajenta has been shown to deliver significant HbA1c reductions compared to placebo and was generally well tolerated in clinical trials involving more than 4,000 patients.

Professor Anthony Barnett, Consultant Physician and Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust and University of Birmingham, says its release is “an important advance in the management” of diabetes.

The drug is licensed for adults with T2MD as a monotherapy in patients inadequately controlled by diet and exercise alone, and for whom metformin is inappropriate due to intolerance, or contraindicated due to renal impairment.

It is also licensed in combination with metformin when diet and exercise plus metformin alone do not provide adequate glycaemic control; and in combination with a sulphonylurea and metformin when diet and exercise plus dual therapy with these medicinal products do not provide adequate glycaemic control.

In clinical trials, a mean HbA1c reduction from baseline of 0.7% was sustained over 102 weeks as add on to metformin and a sulphonylurea in patients using Trajenta.

Around a third of people with diabetes are affected by chronic kidney disease. The convenient tablet is the only dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DDP-4) inhibitor which is primarily excreted via the bile, and the first in this class licensed for use in T2DM, irrespective of degree of renal impairment.

“Linagliptin offers the benefits of the DPP-4 inhibitor class with good tolerability, weight neutrality and low risk of hypoglycaemia and the additional advantage of health professionals being able to prescribe without dose adjustment irrespective of the patient's renal function,” added Professor Anthony Barnett. “Renal impairment is common in people with type 2 diabetes so this latter point is extremely important.”